Promoting health and safety in traditional food markets to fight COVID-19 in Peru and Bolivia

传统粮食市场对中低收入国家成千上万家庭的福利和生计至关重要。于当前COVID-19疫情期间，该等市场已被识别为COVID-19传播的重要地点。迫切需要制定控制措施，减少传统食品市场的感染风险。然而，同样重要的是，这些措施是与可能受影响的人合作制定的，同时考虑到严格控制可能对数以千计的生活依赖市场的家庭产生的不利影响。在本提案中，我们以玻利维亚和秘鲁两个地区正在进行的项目为基础，并根据研究团队成员的请求，支持这些地区的COVID-19应对措施，特别是与市场控制有关的措施。我们解决这一复杂问题的战略采用了流行病学、微生物学和社会科学等不同学科的研究方法。我们将提供一个适用于不同国家的减少COVID-19在食品市场传播的计划，一个在虚拟市场中模拟改变市场运作方式如何降低感染风险的计算机工具，以及关于高风险人群中抗体和病毒本身存在的数据，这可能有助于回答有关COVID-19感染的重要未决问题。我们还将培养当地市场卖家、监管机构和大学生的能力，这不仅在当前的COVID-19疫情中非常重要，而且在应对未来的公共卫生突发事件时也非常重要。

Traditional food markets are important for the welfare and livelihoods of thousands of families in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). During the current COVID-19 pandemic, these markets have been identified as important locations for the spread of COVID-19. The establishment of control measures to reduce risk of infection in traditional food markets is an urgent need. However, it is also important that these measures are developed collaboratively with those that may be affected, taking into account the adverse effects that strict controls may have on thousands of families whose lives depend on the markets. In this proposal we build on ongoing projects in two localities of Bolivia and Peru and on requests to members of the research team to support COVID-19 response in these localities, particularly in relation to controls in markets. Our strategy to tackle this complex issue uses research methods from different disciplines such as epidemiology, microbiology and the social sciences. We will provide a program to reduce COVID-19 transmission in food markets applicable to different countries, a computer tool to simulate, in a virtual market, how changing the way the market operates can reduce risk of infection and data on the presence of antibodies and of the virus itself in people at high risk, which could help answer important pending questions about COVID-19 infection. We will also build local capacity of market sellers, regulators and university students, which will be important not only in the current COVID-19 pandemic but to face future public health emergencies.